The retirement, severance, and bereavement compensation of public school staff members shall be handled in accordance with this Act.

For the purposes of this Act, the competent authority is the Ministry of Education at the central government level; the municipal government at the special municipality level; and the county government（or county-level city government）at the county or（county-level city）level respectively.

In this Act, the term "public school"（hereinafter, "school"）means a school at any level that has been duly established by the competent authority.
In this Act, the term "school staff member" means any of the following personnel（hereinafter, "staff member"）:
1. Principals, teachers, researchers, professional technicians, teachers of professional or technical subjects, technical personnel with rare specialties, full-time coaches, and teaching assistants hired after 21 March 1997（hereinafter, "new-scheme teaching assistants"）, who were employed by a school through hiring, appointment, or selection in accordance with statutory qualifying requirements.
2. Non-teaching staff who were employed before the enforcement of the Act Governing the Appointment of Educators and did not need to apply for a change of rank and contract as civil servant or technician, whose job titles are included in the staff complement of the school, or subsidiary institution thereof, in which they serve, and who have been approved and registered by the competent authority.
Unless otherwise provided in this Act, the provisions herein regarding retirement, severance, or bereavement compensation for staff members referred to in the preceding paragraph apply only to qualified, paid, full-time staff members whose current positions are included in the staff complement of the school.

The following terms used in this Act are defined as set out below:
1. New Pension System: means the educational personnel pension and benefit system implemented from 1 February 1996. Under this system, government and educational personnel jointly make contributions to the Public Service Pension Fund（hereinafter, the "Pension Fund"）joint deposit scheme.
2. Base salary（or seniority salary）: means the salary amount converted, in accordance with the Executive Yuan directions for conversion of salary points（or amount）, from the salary points（or amount）assigned to a staff member in accordance with applicable laws and regulations governing salary.
3. Lump-sum salary-and-allowance relief payment: means the sum total of the following payments paid to a staff member in the month of retirement or severance:
（1）Base salary（or seniority salary）.
（2）Academic research allowances or professional allowances.
（3）Supervisory position allowances.
4. Retirement income replacement rate（hereinafter, "replacement rate"）: means the ratio of the monthly retirement income received by a staff member after retirement to the amount that is twice the monthly base salary（or seniority salary）received by personnel of the same rank in active service in the last month of the staff member's employment. However, in the case of a staff member receiving part of the pension on a monthly basis（"partial monthly basis"）, the replacement rate ceiling shall be adjusted according to the proportion of the partial monthly pension.
5. "Monthly retirement income" is defined as follows, according to the type of pension payment received by a staff member:
（1）For a staff member receiving pension on a monthly basis, it means the sum total of the amounts received monthly in pension（including any monthly compensation）, plus preferential deposit interest on the Civil Servant and School Staff Insurance lump-sum old-age payment, or any insurance annuity received for participation in any social insurance program through a government agency, public school, or government-owned enterprise.
（2）For a staff member receiving pension on a partial monthly basis, it means the sum total of the amounts received monthly in pension（including any monthly compensation）, plus preferential deposit interest on the lump-sum pension payment and on Civil Servant and School Staff Insurance lump-sum old-age payment, or any social insurance annuity.
（3）For a staff member receiving pension on a lump-sum basis, it means the sum total of the amounts received monthly in preferential deposit interest on the lump-sum pension payment, plus preferential deposit interest on the Civil Servant and School Staff Insurance lump-sum old-age payment, or any social insurance annuity.
6. Minimum guaranteed amount: the sum total of the highest base salary of a grade 1 civil servant plus the professional allowance of an ordinary grade 1 civil servant.
7. Pension or separation pay: any corresponding payment such as a pension payment, severance payment, settlement payment for years of service, or separation payment, that is made upon retirement or severance from, or settlement of years of service in, any civil-service, government-enterprise, or military position in accordance with the Statute of Privatization of Government-Owned Enterprises or other provisions governing retirement from civil-service, government-enterprise, or military positions.

Payments that may be claimed by a staff member or his or her survivors under this Act are variously categorized as pension, severance pay, Pension Fund premium principal and interest, bereavement compensation, lump-sum survivor benefit, or survivor annuity（hereinafter, collectively, "pension and benefit payments"）.